Communicators

Communicators used by the Federation, Romulans, Klingons, Borg and Ferengi are all similar in nature and are considered fast FTL radios. With support from a ship in orbit they have a range of about 50,000 km; without support on a planet, they allow line-of-sight communications to a distance of 500 km. They can be combadge types, like the Federation currently uses, or hand-held. Transporters can lock onto this signal in order to increase reliability of transport. Combadges are also used to give the location of individuals on starbase and starships. The badges can adhere to almost any surface using a magnatomic adhesion area. They are powered by a rechargeable Saurium Krellide crystal that provides continuous usage for two weeks. They can be security coded to particular individuals. 

Communicators are also used in combat situations by providing a personal transponder which will help prevent casualties from friendly fire. This ability can be deactivated.

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Tricorders

The tricorder  is the standard portable scanning, recording and information processing device for all Starfleet operatives. The initial concept evolved out of a series of scanning devices issued by Starfleet in circa 2230; intended to reduce the size and weight of equipment issued to landing parties, these scanners incorporated both significant amounts of internal data storage and a high degree of processing capacity. By 2240 the various scanning functions of the series had begun to be combined into a single unit; in 2248 a unit was fielded which integrated scanning, processing and communications facilities. Dubbed the "tri-function recorder", the official name was quickly replaced by the more simple "tricorder".

Many dozens of tricorder variants have been fielded over the 125 years or so. Some, such as the psychotricorder, are optimized for specific tasks - but specialization is not in keeping with tricorder design philosophy, and most new models have simply increased the number of functions and speed of the device while reducing the size and mass. Over the decades the tricorder has proved to be one of the most massively useful instruments in service with Starfleet. It's ability to detect and classify a huge range of different types of phenomena has become legendary, to the extent that Starfleet personnel frequently remark that there seems to be little these handy devices cannot do!

Several models are currently in service; the TR-580 issued in 2358 is now being phased out of service in favor of the more modern TR-590 X, recently developed by Starfleet R&D. The TR-600 is currently in the early planning stages; delivery was expected to begin from 2380, but Starfleet is reported to have speeded up the project and requested modifications to increase capability against various types of stealth technology, a measure clearly aimed at the Dominion war.

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Replicators

Replicators are essentially an outgrowth of transporter technology. The Molecular Matrix Matter Replicator, to give it its full name, is capable of dematerializing a quantity of stored matter in much the same way as a transporter system does; however, there are no imaging scanners to analyze the structure of the material. Instead, a quantum geometry transformational matrix is used to modify the matter stream. The computer which oversees the process can use any available stored pattern within this matrix; once the pattern has been impressed onto the matter stream, it is rematerialized into an almost perfect copy of the original patterned object. 

Replicators are available in small stand alone units, and these must be supplied with power and periodically re-stocked with raw material to keep them running. However, most replicator systems consist of little more than a rematerializing unit and a computer sub processor / interface panel. Many thousands of these units can be connected to a large central dematerializer and transformational matrix system, controlled by a computer holding many thousands of stored patterns and stocked with many tons of raw material. When a user wants to replicate something he or she inputs the request to the terminal, which requests the item from the central system. Once the dematerialization and patterning processes are complete, the matter stream is routed through a network of wave guides to the terminal which originated the request and dematerialized there. This system saves having to keep thousands of individual replicators constantly stocked with raw materials. 

In theory any object can be made from any basic raw material, but in practice significant energy saving can be made by using certain materials; for replication of food items an organic particulate suspension is used; a combination of long chain molecules , this substance has been specially designed, statistically speaking, to require the minimum number of molecular transformations to achieve the maximum variety of foodstuffs. Equivalent stocks are available for replication of non foodstuffs, with the control computer making the choice automatically. 

Replicators which also have a dematerialization system installed can also serve as waste receptacles; waste placed into these can be dematerialized and returned to the central stock, ready to be replicated again. Until recently it was far more efficient to simply collect and recycle the waste by conventional methods, and using replicator terminals in this way was rare. However, recent advances in replicator technology have made such systems a viable proposition and this form of recycling is gradually becoming more commonplace. 

Larger scale industrial replicators are available for the creation of a very wide variety of items which previously required dedicated factories to manufacture them. However, these replicator systems are limited in their abilities - the main such limit being the size of the object produced. For larger manufactured items, it is necessary to replicate smaller components and assemble them via traditional methods. Unfortunately the dream of the replicated skyscraper or starship remains a log way off! 

All present day replicator systems share one basic limitation; they operate at the molecular resolution. As such, significant numbers of single bit errors will occur at the quantum level during any replication. Many claim that this gives replicated foodstuffs a distinctly inferior flavour to the 'real thing', although this may be more a question of bias against the technology rather than any discernible difference. However, the errors are more than sufficient to prevent replication of the precise energy states involved in neural and bioelectric patterns. These patterns, which are reproduced exactly during the operation of the transporter, are necessary to materialize a living being; this limitation therefore prevents the replication of any living thing via standard methods. 

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Holodeck

The first "holochambers" emerged in 2328; they used a small room equipped with a set of holographic projectors which could generate a realistic image of an outdoors scene onto the walls and ceiling. A replicator would then materialize objects within the room to go with the image - plants and trees, for example. The users where then free to pick up and use the objects without having to wear any kind of projection equipment themselves. 

Early holochambers suffered from several limitations; a careless user could easily walk into a wall, for example, and if several users where in one chamber then they could only be as far away from each other as the size of the chamber allowed. The major limitation was in the creation of characters within the holochamber; although reasonably realistic images of people and animals could be projected, users could not Physically touch these characters in any way. 

More recent models have largely overcome these problems; a modern holochamber projects a force field across the floor of the chamber, and should a user walk towards the wall this field begins to act as a 'treadmill' to keep the person stationary; the computer automatically moves the replicated objects within the holochamber and adjusts the holographic projections to simulate the movement the user should experience. Replicated objects reaching the wall are dematerialized, while images of objects reaching the space within the chamber are replicated for real. 

The second hurdle was overcome by 'internal partitioning' of the chamber. Should two people enter a holochamber and walk in directly opposite directions, they would previously only be able to go so far before reaching the walls. While the 'treadmill' effect can convince a user that the environment is passing them, it cannot make the users continue to move further away from each other and so the illusion would be broken. 

In modern holochambers, the computer would sense that this was about to happen and throw up an internal divide; halfway across the holochamber the computer would throw up a hologram showing each user an image of the other, continuing to move further away - essentially this process creates two miniature holochambers within one. Should the users head back towards each other the computer would reverse the process, merging the two into one again. A modern holochamber is capable of sub-dividing into many separate environments, allowing groups of people to wander around independently of each other. 

Perhaps the most impressive advance in holochamber technology has been the advent of 'holomatter'. This is solid matter created within the holochamber energy grid and manipulated by highly articulated computer driven tractor beams; although early efforts where crude, modern holochambers can use holomatter to create and animate totally realistic characters within the chamber. 

The basic mechanism behind the holochamber is the omni-directional holo-diode (OHD). The OHD is a small unit (several hundred million per square meter in modern holochambers) which is capable of projecting both full color stereoscopic images and three dimensional forcefields. The OHD's are circuit printed onto large sheets, which are then subdivided into tiles of 0.61 square meters. A typical Starfleet Holodeck wall consists of twelve sub processing layers totaling 3.5 mm thickness, diffusion bonded to a lightweight cooling tile. The panel is controlled by an optical data network similar to that used for standard panel displays. Dedicated subsections of the main computer system drive the holodeck, and it is the memory and speed of these computers which determines the number and complexity of the holodeck programmes available. 

Although modern holochambers are often touted as being just as good as the real thing, in practice there are still limitations. Even the best holochamber can only subdivide into a maximum of twelve separate environments, and many holochamber programmes are not complex enough to make full use of the holochambers technical capabilities. Perhaps the biggest limitation is in the holomatter itself; this is only stable within the energy grid, and looses cohesion almost instantly if removed from the holochamber. 

Holochambers come in various sizes and types; the federation is reputed to have the best models, with Earth boasting some of the largest known holochambers. Starfleet 'Holodecks' are probably the most technically sophisticated, while the Ferengi are known for having some of the most advanced and creative entertainment software.

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Transwarp Drive

Transwarp and the Transwarp drive were an experimental technology for increasing the efficiency and speed of starship propulsion systems. Though the project showed great promise and was extensively tested on the USS Excelsior, Federation scientists could not make it work successfully and abandoned the project.

The actual method or process of using Transwarp drive and Transwarp Conduits is unknown.  However, a rare form of Dilithium, called "Trilithium" was used by the Voyager crew in an attempt to recreate the original Tranwarp experiments. Unfortunatly Voyagers tests ended in abject failure. The reason for this being the sudden and spontaneous occupation of every point in the universe when an object reached Warp 10, the theoretical barriar of warp drive.

There is speculation that the original Tranwarp drive was an attempt to create an opening via interphase and travel through another dimension. Since time flowedat a different rate in this other dimension a three week journey via interphase would only take three days in real space. However, this is only a stop gap measure and creates unpleasant scenarios akin to the Relativity problems of non-warp interstellar travel. 

In 2270 it was realized that even this theoretical transwarp domain was only part of the whole structure. The theory allowed for an infinite number of such domains, each separated by a warp barrier. Throughout the early 2270's there was a huge effort to discover whether these transwarp domains where just theoretical constructs, or where actually real. In 2273 the Starfleet science vessel USS Wanderer conducted a subspace particle dissipation experiment which proved conclusively that not only did Transwarp domains actually exist, but that under certain circumstances it was possible for matter to circumvent the warp barrier and pass into the transwarp domain. 

Theoretical and practical studies quickly established that at a point infinitesimally past Warp 10, the warp factor exponent fell from infinity to zero and then began to gradually rise again. By Warp 11 the exponent reached 13/3, after which it mirrors the behavior of the normal warp curve. A Warp 19 the exponent begins to climb, again reaching infinity at warp 20 to form the next warp barrier. The whole process is repeated again in the second Transwarp domain, and again in the third, and so on. In each domain the 'steady' central value of the exponent increases linearly - from 10/3 in the warp domain to 13/3 in the first Transwarp domain, 16/3 in the second, then 19/3, 22/3, and so on. 

The speeds of warp factors within the warp domain and the first two Transwarp domains can be seen on following chart.

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Quantum Torpedoes

As in the history of laser-induced fusion, zero-point energy generation began with a negative energy balance, requiring a greater input of high-temperature EPS plasma to initiate the reaction than what was actually produced by the zero-point field device. The basic mechanism, first operated experimentally in 2336, involved the formation of an eleven-dimensional space-time membrane. A cousin of the superstring, the membrane was twisted into a string with a topology of Genus 1 and pinched off from the background vacuum, calling into existence a new particle. The process of creating large numbers of new subatomic particles liberated correspondingly large amounts of energy. Calculations quickly showed that a relatively small volume of ultraclean vacuum carried aboard a torpedo warhead could place a highly explosive energy release on the target. A similar, albeit larger, event created most of the mass of the universe in the big bang. The pinch does not, as some researches initially believed, occur at the same interface between this universe and the big bang's remnant domain, though such a continuum pinch may lead to even greater energy releases.

The testing of the prototype zero-point warhead occurred on Groombridge 273-2A, an uninhabited gas-giant moon, in 2355, following six years of theoretical research and experimental hardware development. Various types of EM emitters were successful at producing energy bursts, and one was chosen for a detonation test 285 kilometers beneath the surface. Security measures had already been heightened for the entire program when tensions spiked dramatically one hour before the test. One researcher produced a computer simulation that indicated a possible rapid and total annihilation of the moon at the moment of detonation. Unfortunately, one calculation variable dealing with hypothetical runaway vacuum pinching had not been deleted, and another last-minute simulation predicted a detonation confined to a nine-hundred-meter diameter sphere. The test was successful, the Groombridge site was abandoned and restored to its original state, and Starfleet defensive weapon facilities continued with fabrication.

Torpedo Configuration
The quantum torpedo consists of a pressure-molded shell of densified tritanium and duranium foam, trapezoidal in cross section and tapered at the forward end for atmospheric applications. A 7-millimeter layer of plasma-bonded terminium ceramic forms an ablative armor skin for the foam hull, over which is bonded a 0.12-millimeter coating of silicon-copper-yttrium rigid polymer as an antiradiation coating. Beyond the necessary cuts and welds for propulsion and warhead hardware installation, minimal penetrations are made by phaser cutters, so that the hull may be rendered as near to EM-silent as is technologically possible. All seals around extended components are treated with a suspension of forced-matrix ferrenimide, which establishes a minute amount of duonetic field activity, effectively blocking EM leakage. All active and passive sensor pulses are channeled through machined cavities in the inner hull at approximately twenty-six-centimeter intervals in all three axes.

The heart of the current system is the zero-point field reaction chamber, a teardrop-shaped enclosure fabricated from a single crystal of directionally strengthened rodinium-ditellenite. The chamber measures 0.76 meters in diameter by 1.38 meters in length and 2.3 centimeters in average thickness. The assembly is penetrated by a single opening in the tapered end, cut by a nanometer phaser in an inert atmosphere of argon and neon. Two jacketing layers, one of synthetic neutronium and another of dilithium, control the upper and lower extremes of the energy-field contours. Attached to the taper opening is a zero-point initiator consisting of an EM rectifier, waveguide bundle, subspace field amplifier, and continuum distortion emitter. The emitter creates the actual pinch field from a conical spike 10^ -16 meters across at the tip.

The zero-point initiator is powered by the detonation of an uprated photon torpedo warhead with a yield of 21.8 isotons, achieved through increased matter-antimatter surface area contact and introduction of fluoronetic vapor. The M/A reaction occurs at four times the rate of a standard warhead. The detonation energy is channeled through the initiator within 10^ -7 seconds and energizes the emitter, which imparts a tension force upon the vacuum domain. As the vacuum membrane expands, over a period of 0,0001 seconds, an energy potential equivalent to at least fifty isotons is created. This energy is held by the chamber for 10^ -8 seconds and is then released by the controlled failure of the chamber wall.

Flight Systems
Propulsion for the quantum torpedo is handled by four microfusion thrusters working in concert with standard warp field sustainer coils. Propellant supply valves, cross-feeds to the photon detonator, and M/A tankage are housed in the aft compartment. Guidance, navigation, and fusing of the torpedo is controlled by the onboard computer and sensor array. The main processor for the computer is a bio-neural gel cylinder surrounded by a low-level inboard warp field for FTL computations and a low-level outboard thoron web to block threat force countermeasure radiation.

A total of fifty-three safety interlocks are distributed across all systems. Since the zero-point vacuum initiator contains numerous rare alloys and elements and cannot be replicated, fabrication has proven a long and painstaking process, requiring the enforcement of stricter safety protocol levels for the program and forcing difficult allocation decisions for available torpedo inventories. While the torpedo structure remains robust during manufacture, transit, storage, and ultimately launching, special handling and loading precautions must be taken to insure warhead survival. Nominal procedures includes antigravs, telerobotic servicing, and use of protective buffer fields.

Operations
Launch and maneuvering at impulse velocities up to 0.9993c may be accomplished with onboard M/A reactant consumption of no more than 23 percent; launch at warp will decrease reactant use to 15 percent due to the launcher hand-off warp field. If the torpedo is moving at warp and its target drops to impulse, the torpedo will not make a commensurate drop to impulse, since it cannot reestablish its warp sustainer field. In this case it would detonate on impact or at closest approach, using data from the proximity sensors and three-axis relative velocity algorithms. If the torpedo and the target are both at high impulse, and the target ramps to warp, the torpedo will still have sufficient velocity to reach an effective destruct radius.

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Phasers

The safety interlock is used to identify and check the person using the phaser. The STA is used as part of the safety system whilst on a federation starship. It makes sure that power levels are automatically restrained during firings on a starship, usually no more than heavy stun. The STA on phasers has additional target sensors and processors for distant aiming functions. Energy from the power cell passes through all three modules and is then routed through shielded conduits to the prefire chamber, a sphere of LiCu 521 1.5 cm in diameter which is reinforced with gulium arkenide. The energy is stored temporarily by a charge barrier. When this charge barrier collapses the energy is discharged through the LiCu emitter crystal as a pulse of energy. Upon firing the charge barrier breaks down in 0.02 picoseconds. Through the rapid nadion effect the LiCu 521 emitter converts this pulse into a tuned phaser discharge. As with the ships main phaser banks, the more energy in the prefire chamber, the greater the percentage of nuclear disruption. At low to moderate settings the nuclear disruption threshold isn't crossed, limiting the phaser discharge to stun and thermal effects (resulting from electromagnetic effects).

Available Power Settings

1 Light Stun Knocks out base-type humanoids for up to five minutes.	9 Disruption effects Damage to heavy alloy and ceramic materials over 100cm thick.
2 Medium Stun Knocks out base-type humanoids for up to 15 minutes.	10 Disruption effects Heavy alloy and ceramic materials over 100cm thick are vaporised.
3 Heavy Stun Knocks out base-type humanoids for up to 1 Hour.	11 Disruption/explosive effects Ultra dense alloy materials vaporise. Light geological displacement.
4 Thermal effects Causes neural damage and skin burns to base-type humanoids.	12 Disruption/explosive effects Ultra dense alloy materials vaporise. Medium geological displacement.
5 Thermal effects Causes severe burn effects to humanoid tissue.	13 Disruption/explosive effects Light vibrations to shielded matter. Medium geological displacement.
6 Disruption effects Causes matter to disassociate and deeply penetrates organic tissue.	14 Disruption/explosive effects Medium vibrations to shielded matter. Heavy geological displacement.
7 Disruption effects Kills humanoids as disruption effects become widespread.	15 Disruption/explosive effects Major vibrations to shielded matter. Heavy geological displacement.
8 Disruption effects Cascading disruption forces vaporise humanoid organisms.Maximum setting for type I phasers.	16 Disruption/explosive effects Shielded matter fractures. Heavy geological displacement. Maximum setting for type II phasers.

Anti-Gravity Generators

Organic lifeforms require gravitational and electro-magnetic fields, similar to those found on most M-Class worlds, to ensure proper cellular growth. In the following days of space travel Low-level EM field devices simulated planetary background electrical and magnetic fields were used, and the crews of many 20-30 year flights arrived in a healthy state.

By the 22nd Century, technological advances had allowed the creation of artificial gravity devices small enough to use on most Starships. A network of small artificial gravity devices, working together to provide the proper sense of 'down'. This network is also tied into the inertial dampening system to minimise motion shock during flight. Although the fields between devices do overlap slightly, if they have been arranged and tuned properly, the effect is barely noticable.

The gravitational field itself is created by a controlled stream of gravitons, like the basic physics behind the tractor beam. Power from the Electro-Plasma System (EPS) is channeled into a hollow chamber of anicium titanide 454, a sealed cylindrical chamber measuring 50cm in diameter and 25cm high. Suspended in the center of the chamber, in pressurised chrylon gas, is a superconducting stator of thoronium arkenide. Once at a rotational rate of 125,540 rpm (1.1832 x 10^7 rads/sec), generates a gravitational fieldwith a short lifetime, in the order of a few picoseconds. This decay time necessitates the additional of other devices beyond 30m distance. The field is close enough to being uniform to allow natural walking without a grativity gradient from head to foot, long a problem in centrifugal systems.

The superconducting stator remains suspended from the time of manufacture, requiring only a synchronising pulse of energy from the EPS sytem approximately once every 60 minutes. In the event of EPS failure, the stator will continue to provide an attractive field for up to 240 minutes, though after the first hour a degradation of field strength to around 0.8g will be detected. Any perceived ship motions that might disturb the stator gyroscopically are dampened by sinesoidal ribs on the inner surface of the anicium titanide chamber, effectively absorbing motions with an acceleration of less than 6cm/sec. All motions with higher acceleration are dealt with by the ships inertial dampening field.

Gravity generators are located throughout the habitable volume of most spacecraft. Because of this, inertial potential can vary from one location to the other, especially during harsh manouevers. In order to allow translation of excess inertial potential to other parts of the ship, gravity generators are connected to each other by a network of small waveguide conduits that allow field bleed, hence increasing gravitational stability.

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Escape Pods

The first group of ASRVs were delivered in 2337 in time to be fitted to the last Renaissance class starship, the USS Hokkaido, and with minimal hardware and software changes were chosen as the lifeboats for the Galaxy class. Automated facilities on the Earth, Mars, Rigel IV, and Starbase 326 produced 85 per cent of the ASRVs, with satellite facilities on Velikan V Rangifer II acting as the industry second sources of the remaining 15 per cent.

The ASRV measures 3x3x3 m and its shape is characterized as a truncated cube. The total mass is 1.35 metric tones. It's internal space frame is a standard beam and stringer arrangement, constructed from gamma-welded titanium and frumium monocarbonite. The frame is skinned with single crystal micro-filleted tritanium with umbilical passthroughs, conformal emitters, and sensors doped with hafnium cobarate for passive thermal control during atmosphere entry.

 Propulsion is available from three different systems. The ejector initiator is a single pulse, buffered microfusion device that propels the lifeboat through the launch channel. Power is tapped from the fusion reaction to start the lifeboats inertial dampening field and gravity generator.

The main impulse engine, a low-power microfusion system for all primary spacecraft maneuvering, is rated at a maximum thrust of 9500 Newtons and is fed from a 75kg deuterium fuel supply. The reaction control system provides precise attitude control in space, and maneuvering during planetary landing.

Life support on the ASRV is maintained by its automated environmental system, providing complete atmospheric composition, pressure, humidity and temperature control. Stored food and water supplies as well as a waste management system are included . Lightweight environmental suits are stowed with portable survival packs for planetary operations.

The normal capacity of a lifeboat is four, although provisions are provided for as many as six.

One important feature of the ASRV design, the inline docking hatches, allow it to dock with other lifeboats to form large clusters. This capability, nicknamed "gaggle-mode", dramatically increases in-space survival rates by allowing access to wounded crew members by medical personnel, combining consumables supplies, and adding propulsion options. Gaggle mode must be terminated before atmospheric entry, as the structural loads cannot be handled by the combined craft. 

Out of the four hundred lifeboats on the Galaxy class, eighty are specialized with two additional docking ports to increase the packing density and structural integrity of the gaggle.

Crucial to the recovery of lifeboats are the subspace communications system and automatic distress beacons.

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Life Support

How They Work:

All space vessels and facilities require extensive life support systems to support their crews. These systems are basically the same on all Federation ships and space stations. Life support systems maintain a single environment, suitable for most Federation races, although individual species, like the Benzites, may require supplemental devices, such as respirators to help them breathe. Life support systems have to meet the highest safety standards. On Galaxy-Class starships they are designed with multiple backups and redundant safety checks that protect the crew, even in the event of multiple systems failure. For instance, the atmospheric support system to the Main Bridge features seven independent safety interlocks.

Except for gravity, which is created by generators throughout the ship, this safety net includes mutually supportive parallel trunk lines and a reserve utility distribution network for limited supplies of basics such as air, power and water. Life support equipment centers are on Decks 6,9 and 13 in the primary hull, and Decks 11,21,24, and 34 in the engineering hull.

In the rare event of a system wide failure, there will still be sufficient atmosphere to maintain the crew for several hours. The exact length of time will depend on the number of personnel on board, and how many panic.

Atmosphere:

Reflecting the overall ergonomic design, an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere is maintained for Class-M life forms as a shipwide norm. Per standard 102.19 set by STARFLEET regulatory Agency, this amounts to air at 26oC, and 45% relative humidity at a pressure maintained at 101 kilopascals, amounting to 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% trace gases.

On the Galaxy class, some 10% of the habitable living space can be adjusted to classes H,K, or L environment norms without hardware modifications. Another 2% are equipped for swapout to classes N and N2. However, the entire ship can be altered for natives of classes H-K-L planets with the replacement of atmospheric processor modules in a major Starbase refit.

Processors are located throughout the ship at a rate of about two redundant units per very 50 cubic meters of habitable ship's volume. The units combine carbon-dioxide removal with oxygen replenishment, mostly accomplished via natural photosynthetic ioprocessors. Normal maintenance calls for each side of the parallel system to take the load every 96-hour cycle, which allows for maintenance on the other, although individual units can be switched between the two for greater flexibility and redundancy.

The third backup atmosphere net can provide up to 50% of the system capacity for up to 24 hours. In addition, if the main and reserve atmospheric systems fail, contingency atmospheric modules, available at most corridor junctions, can cover evacuation, repair, or shelter-seeking time of approximately 30 minutes.

Artificial Gravity:

Aside from the ease of mobility for work and play it affords, and the pleasing 'natural' feel, artificial gravity has long been known to be practically indispensable for off-world living, due to its necessity for cellular growth and health.

For the Galaxy-class Starship, hundreds of simple synthetic gravity generators provide the Class-M norm, tied in to the inertial dampers to counteract acceleration effects in an effect much like the tractor beam, each generator creates a gravity field by using a controlled stream of gravitons generated by a superconducting stator rotating at speeds over 125,540 rpm, powered by energy tapped from the electro-plasma system (EPS). The stator, built, built of thoronium arkenide, is in turn suspended within pressurized chrylon gas in the center of a hollow sealed chamber of anicium titanide 454, measuring only 50 cm in diameter and 25 cm tall. This device provides a graviton field of only a few picoseconds, so the decay time demands that generators be located every 30 meters or so. Thus, the ship at large includes two networks of 400 generators each in the primary hull, and two more networks of 200 each in the engineering hull. The generators are tied together by small waveguide conduits to allow 'field bleed' in cases of extreme maneuvering and inertial movement.

Each stator is built in suspended state, and is maintained with only a synchronizing EPS energy pulse every hour or so. In the case of EPS loss, the stator will provide an attraction field for up to 240 minutes, with a dip down to only about 0.8g predicted. Sinesopidal ribs on the inner surface of each generator's sealed cylinder absorb motions with an amplitude up to 6 cm per second.

The crew are protected from the effects of acceleration by the inertial damper field, which enables the ship to accelerate to high speeds without pulverizing ship's personnel.

Waste Management:

Since no starships can carry the required amounts of food and water for extended missions, recycling and waste reclamation is a must.

Aboard the Galaxy-Class, complexes on Decks 6,13 and 24 include treatment and recycling units for liquid waste, all of which is recycled into fresh water, food replication, or general matter replication.

Solid waste is handled in processors on Decks 9,13 and 34. These scan for composition, and route items to the most practical means required.

Some 82% of all solid waste can be recycled mechanically, but any material that cannot be directly recycled this way or chemically - including about 5% of all waste classed as hazardous - is set aside for general matter replication. Due to the energy-intensive nature of full matter dematerialization, which is in effect a one-way transporter, most recycling is accomplished by the older and more common methods

Reliability:

Modern life support systems can cope with a number of situations that would have been fatal on earlier starships and space stations. Most notably, hull breaches are automatically contained by forcefields.

Under normal circumstances, life support is extremely reliable. STARFLEET calculates that, barring a serious accident, life support failure should only occur once every five hundred years.

Backup Systems:

Despite the redundancy built into all Starship systems, designers must allow for emergency backup systems in case of system loss or damage.

For the Galaxy class, the philosophy is twofold - a 30 minute shipwide lighting and power backup system to cover repair time if needed, and 52 designated emergency shelters, such as the forward observation lounge at Deck 10, Section 1.

The backup system includes 425 of the corridor junction modules cited earlier which, in addition to atmospherics, include emergency lighting and batteries. The shelters, powered by a series of dedicated and protected power trunks, are designed to sustain up to 65 crewmembers for up to 36 hours. They also include 24 hours' worth of air, water, food and power supplies independent of even the backup, as well as two emergency pressure garments.

Even in the event of an emergency, it is highly unlikely that life support will fail throughout the ship. In the event of a partial systems failure, the Commanding Officer may opt to evacuate or, on a Galaxy-class Starship, the Commanding Officer may initiate a saucer section separation, with the entire crew taking refuge in the unaffected section.

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